


Losing Hope and Leaving Home

by shadowfalcon



Series: The Walking Dead Supernatural Universe [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, Vampires, supernatural stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 07:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4555260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowfalcon/pseuds/shadowfalcon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Artie Mcdow is a native of Frankfort KY. Learn his story and join him as he joins our prison group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Losing Hope and Leaving Home

**Author's Note:**

> So this is like a prologue piece for a rickyl story I plan to be working on in the future, but it can be read alone. Any comments are welcomed. :P

Frankfort Kentucky wasn’t the busiest of cities— Arthur Mcdow was one of her citizens before and after the virus starred to turn up in the states. He and his group had decided to hole up in an abandoned apartment building to see if they could wait the whole event out. It didn’t seem like that was happening though. Eight whole months had passed now since it began, Adria counted down the days on a calendar, and they were finally almost completely out of their meager food supplies. 

For the past eight months the five of them had been eating only what was necessary and caught the rainwater for more water that they needed on a daily basis. It had all ended up being a pretty efficient operation, until they got down to their last bag of rice and last can of spam. 

That was how they ended up were they were now, in front of a can food shipping plant. Arthur, Artie for short, stood there with his group of four debating if it was really wise to go investigate the place. 

“Guys we gotta decide whether we want to really go in there or not. Better if we did before more of those creeps show wanting a piece of us.” said Neil, a broad shouldered blonde in his late twenties.

“I donno if something looks too good to be true then it usually is.” said the deep baritone voice of Zykk, Arties childhood friend. He was the only one Artie really knew before the psychos started to hole up in their quaint little city of Frankfort. 

“Yeah but we really need food and this place seems to be promising enough,” said Shay, a short brunette with a short tempered attitude. 

Adria didn’t say a word, just remained quiet in the mist of their small debate. Artie had to agree with Zykk though— this place had probably already been ransacked early on during the outbreak. The others seemed pretty hopeful in the abandoned factory and this left them with one decision. 

“Alright guys group vote who wants to go inside and who wants to look elsewhere for food?” asked Artie. Neil, Shay, and Adria raised their hand in favor. That left Artie and Zykk being the only ones to disagree with the rest of the group, even if they hadn’t wanted to go inside the building they were now. They hardly ever split up, strength in numbers Artie surmised. 

Going up to the fence the group saw that there was a chain lock in place on the fence. Artie didn’t take this as a good sign and going by the look on his friends face neither did he. The other three foolhardy ones weren’t slowed down one bit by the slight distraction. Adria, known for picking locks before the apocalypse simply picked it open for them all to enter. 

Inside nothing stood out in particular to them. The shelves in the hallway that they had entered were empty and dust covered. There was no food in sight, not a single can to be seen. Artie shook his head in disappointment— this trip wasn’t boding well so far. There were, however, more rooms to be searched and they could possibly find something in them if they were thorough enough with their search. 

Looking into a room to the left Artie thought he saw something promising. His grout must not have seen it as they continued to walk forward slowly looking around for useful items. He sighed it didn’t look like they were going to be looking in this room, so he would. Whistling in a low tone he got Zykk’s attention. I’m going to look in this room meet back up with ya in a minute Artie mouthed. Zykk must have understood to an extent as he nodded an affirmative. 

The blonde stepped inside the dark room and walked to the corner opposite of the door. He was sure he had seen something in the room, walking over the shelving units became more obvious and so did the boxed food stored there— everything from Hamburger Helpers to mashed potatoes.

“Sweet” Artie said as he took the bag off of his back and began stuffing the food inside. This amount of food could last them a week and a half if they ate sparsely. By the time he was done stuffing his rucksack he realized they would have to stop back by the room on their way out to gather the rest. his pack just wasn’t large enough to carry all of the food. 

Swinging the pack back over his back he heard a distant thud further into the complex. Artie’s only thought was that his group had run into trouble. Dashing out of the room the blonde headed for the direction the group had went off to just before he separated from them. His breathing had quickened as the adrenaline filled his veins. The double doors that they had no doubt entered were just ahead of him. He couldn’t make any sound as he entered or he himself could be put into danger before he would be able to help the others out. Ever so slowly he opened the right door, hunting knife in hand. It squeaked just as it shut behind him. 

“Shit” he whispered quietly and dashed quickly over to the other side of the wall, into the darker shadows. 

The room itself was full of shelving units. Some were full, others were empty and the light that came through the windows on the other side of the room was dull making it even harder to see. He didn’t want to risk using his flashlight not knowing what was truly in the room— whether it was his people or worse the dead fucks wanting to eat them. 

“Zykk,” Artie whispered into the silent room, “You guys in here?”

There was no answer. They must have been further into the complex than he thought they would get in the time that he was gone. Navigating the maze of storage shelves Artie found a hallway simile to the one they had all entered through. The only difference being that it was longer and had more intact doors. The place looked as though no one had been in the place since the turn had begun. That meant it would be a good food source as long as he found his group soon unharmed. 

It had probably only been five or ten minutes since the blonde had split from the group and now he couldn’t find them— the place wasn’t even that large. There were only a few rooms in the hall and already he had searched two of the rooms, which left three more rooms to be searched. 

“Where’d you guys go?” Artie whispered to himself. The place was too quiet— if they were making any noise Artie knew he would hear it. Just then a quiet moan of pain could be heard. Was that them? Artie thought. The noise was alarming and caused Artie to run down the hall and in the direction that he heard the noise come from. 

Through this door then? Artie thought as he pushed the heavy door open slowly. There were stairs leading up in front of him. Hoping none of them would squeak under his weight he started the track up. The noises only got louder the higher he went up the stairs, only luck could attest to the fact that none of the stairs had spoken from under him. 

This time the noise he heard was more of a shout and it sounded like Adria— that couldn’t be good. Walking faster but still cautiously up the stairs he cracked the door at the top of them. What he saw could only be from a supernatural horror film. His entire group tied up and two of them had other people sucking blood from their necks. Zykk was close to the door and rights beside of a large create that was conveniently placed. Dashing through the hole he’d made in the door, Artie made his way over to his childhood friend. 

“Zykk,” he whispered to the other, “Zykk, are you okay?”

Artie was near tears after the sentence came out of his mouth for when his friend turned his head crimson blood was gushing out of his neck. 

“Artie,” Zykk whispered, “You gotta get outta here”

“Not without you…I can’t just leave you here” Artie’s voice almost broke his whisper. He desperately hoped the demons at his other friend’s necks wouldn’t notice him. 

“You have to,” Zykk paused, “I won’t make it outta here alive.”

“I-I can’t”

“You have to, you’re my brother and I don’t want you to die too” Zykk had tears in his eyes that were leaking down his cheeks, “Please”

“I’ll-I’ll never forget you, brother” Artie chocked out before he turned to leave. His friend was right even if they did get him out his blood would attract the biters and he would most likely die of blood loss later on. His heart broke at his loss.  
He left as quickly as he could trying to not think of what h had just condemned his friends to. He had to leave town quickly and so only armed with only the clothes on his back and the food and weapons on his person he moved south. It was time to leave Kentucky.

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That was two months ago now. The shaggy haired blonde had been on the road for months hoping the creatures wouldn’t find him. Stopping he pulled out his bottle of water and the map that he had been carrying with him. He was in Georgia, that much he knew. Already he had passed the customary, ‘Welcome to Georgia’ state sign about a week ago. Maybe it was only a few days, time was harder to tell now, and counting the days was the only sure way to track time. 

Artie sighed. He knew not when would be a good place to scavenge anymore. Most places he went to only had useless things left or something that was terribly expired. Some days he would be lucky enough to find a rare can of spam in a looted Wall-Mart. His map indicated that there was a small town in the direction he was headed. ‘Time to see if it’s looted out completely,’ thought Artie. It was only a mile before he was in the small town, making it a short walk until he could rest for a while. 

The whole way to the Georgian town Artie could only think about the possible food that he would find. A mouth watering piece of fried meat would have been amazing at the moment, but Artie knew he wouldn’t find anything like that that wasn’t rotten. Continuous travel had been hard on his already lean form causing him to lose more weight. 

Arriving he spotted a nice looking truck— it even looked as though it was operational. Now Artie had been taught how to do routine maintenance on vehicle by his father, but nothing like fixing dead ones, hence why he was walking all this length and not in a car. There was also a Triumph Bonneville sitting near in the same condition— he wasn’t alone in this town. 

He ran over to the nearest house and went inside, taking out his knife along the way. Whoever these people were he didn’t know if they were good people or not and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out. Still looking at the truck he backed up further inside the house for more cover. 

“Drop tha’ knife an’ turn slowly,” a gruff voice said from behind him and slowly he obeyed. Too late for not finding out whom these people were. What Artie turned to was a man holding a crossbow to his head and a woman wielding a katana. 

“Easy” Artie began his voice rough and soft from disuse, “Easy, I’m not here for any trouble, just a little food.” 

Glancing to one another the other two in the room slowly lowered their weapons, but didn’t put them away. 

“Well, you don’t look very dangerous.” The women said, “You alone?”

“Yeah, been alone for quite some time.” Artie said loping towards the ground in sadness remembering his group. 

“Alright then, I’m Daryl, this is Michonne,” said the man pointing over to the women. 

“I’m Artie” he said in return.

“We have shelter food and a large group you can come if you can answer three questions,” The women, Michonne, said. 

“Um, alright I can do that as long as I can have some of the food I know you’ve had to of found.” Artie answered matter-of-factly looking from one person to the other. They didn’t seem to be bad people— they were even offering food and a place to go, presumably a safe place. 

“How many walkers have you killed?” Michonne asked.

Artie figured answering honestly would be the best thing to do. No need to lie when they seemed to be okay people, nothing like the creatures that had devoured his friends up in Frankfort. “Honestly, I don’t know anymore, been on the road a while.”

“How many people have you killed?” the women questioned next. Artie blanched at the suggestion of killing people, not yet had he had to anything of the sort. It didn’t seem right to even fathom the idea. 

“None, I haven’t killed any people.” said the lean lad.

“Why?” Michonne more of stated than questioned.

“I’ve had no reason to.” Artie said quietly. Why would I go out of my way to kill a person? Artie questioned himself before shaking it off. 

“Alright, come one then.” The women stated pushing past him and out the door. 

By the silver truck was a couple now, the man an Asian. They were casually talking when the three approached them. The young woman was the first of the two to notice him. 

“Who is this?” she asked her country accent strong. Artie could only picture her being a farmer girl before the turn, as he liked to call it. Artie didn’t answer though, he let one other the others do that. 

“Artie.” was the simple reply the man, Daryl, Artie thought, said.

“He good,” Michonne said after looking to the two of them and shaking her head in a yes fashion. 

“Alright I’m Maggie and this,” The young women said gesturing to the Asian, “is Glenn.”

“You guys ready to go?” Glenn asked Michonne and Daryl. They both only nodded their heads. 

“Alright, Artie you’ll ride with us” Glenn said as he climbed behind the steering wheel. They all climbed in to their respective seats after, Artie in the back with Michonne and Daryl on the Triumph. The silence in the vehicle was unnerving to Artie the further they got from the small town. He stared out the window to make it become less awkward for him. The grass blew by in little streaks of green and the trees did the same. It was almost as though it was before the turn and he was on his way home. Little did he know the group he found would soon become family and he was going home.


End file.
